Yup, just decided to jump off, no jacket, going 22MPH. I didn't even know until I fell and the driver said we need to go pick him up. He was a few hundred yards behind the boat by the time I fell. Was his first time on my boat.

He wasn't acting very stupid throughout the day, so it caught me very off guard. I think he knocked the wind out of himself pretty bad...which serves him right, but he could have drown easy, and that's just a lot of paperwork.

A few weeks ago some friends and I went to Shasta for a long weekend. First day on the water and we were less then 10 minutes from the launch two of my friends decide to just up and bail out of the boat at 25MPH. They were in the back, I was driving and two more were in the bow. The guys up front watched them get ready to jump but I didn't have a clue. I would never have known except I felt the slightest "bump/movement" when they jumped and I turned a few seconds after thinking about it to ask them if they noticed it too...that's when I noticed they were gone and hundred of feet back.

Had it happen once before and that guys not allowed on my boat anymore! It's just to much liability, not to mention i don't want to have to end my day riding to deal with the hassle of someone dying!

The ironic part was this guy was a Coast Guard rescue swimmer! I noticed immediatly after he jumped and turned around to get him. We were going 45 mph and he about knocked himself out! After we dragged him onto the back of the boat he made the comment it hurt worse then jumping out of the helicopter! No S$#@ dumba$$ the helicopter was hovering!

That was always a rule in my boat! Whenever someone sticks their first invert someone is bailing out of the boat...every new invert after that then the girls have to abide by the ti*s for tricks rule!!

It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That' s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stellas for the past year:

* SEVENTH PLACE *

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

Start scratching!

* SIXTH PLACE *

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

Scratch some more....

* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more...

Double hand scratching after this one.. * FOURTH PLACE *

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot.. * THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tail bone. The reason the soft drink was on the=2 0floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

Only two more so ease up on the scratching.... *SECOND PLACE*

Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.

Ok. Here we go!! * FIRST PLACE *

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

Damn, we use to do this all the time in my boat. If you drive about 25-30 and jump right behind the boat it sucks you down for a second and you shoot back up.

I think once I had like 5 friends in a row all jump out. If the conditions permit I don't think it is a big deal at all. Now if it is a really busy day on the water that might not be a good idea though.

I think it's funny that people bring up that McDonalds case with out actually having any knowledge of the case itself, outside what the media led them to believe.

In the end McDonalds should have lost that case. All she wanted was medical bills, after the cup actually melted and caused the burn. She spent a good amount of time in the hospital and McDonalds knew the coffee was hot enough to melt the cup, since they had previous issues with it injuring people. Instead they fought it and were found not only liable, but also were accessed punitive damages due to their extreme negligence.

Last summer, it took over a month to find the body of a guy who jumped out of a moving boat on Norris Lake here in East Tennessee. The other passengers said he had commented earlier that he wondered what it would feel like. It just seems like a dumb idea to me. "Hey guys, watch this."

-When I'm riding I can't control what goes on in the boat, as hard as I try. Always like to have another boat owner to drive, but often not possible. But when I have yahoo's drive my boat at least I make them stay stone sober.

-Age a factor? No, we aren't that young anymore. But some people never grow up.

People do some stupid sh**. If the driver knows your about to jump that seems like one thing. To just jump out when someone is riding or when the driver doesnt know is completely idiotic. Different kind of thing that supports my stupid theory: Last year I was driving my boat on the columbia river in Ea. WA heading into a resort at night. I was idling through a no wake zone. I barely saw something and pulled the boat out of idle. It was 2 drunk guys swimming across the river. A couple more seconds I'd of run them over. I chewed there asses out and made them get on back of my boat and took them back. I was so pissed off.